The Life of Kingsley AmisHere is the authorized, definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of twentieth-century literature, renowned for his blistering intelligence, savage wit and belligerent fierceness of opinion: Kingsley Amis was not only the finest comic novelist of his generation–having first achieved prominence with the publication of Lucky Jim in 1954 and as one of the Angry Young Men–but also a dominant figure in post—World War II British writing as novelist, poet, critic and polemicist. In The Life of Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, acclaimed editor of The Letters of Kingsley Amis, draws not only on unpublished works and correspondence but also on interviews with a wide range of Amis’s friends, relatives, fellow writers, students and colleagues, many of whom have never spoken out before. The result is a compulsively readable account of Amis’s childhood, school days and life as a student at Oxford, teacher, critic, political and cultural commentator, professional author, husband, father and lover. Even as he makes the case for Amis’s cultural centrality–at his death Time magazine claimed that “the British decades between 1955 and 1995 should in fairness be called ‘the Amis era’”–Leader explores the writer’s phobias, self-doubts and ambitions; the controversies in which he was embroiled; and the role that drink played in a life bedeviled by erotic entanglements, domestic turbulence and personal disaster. Dazzling for its thoroughness, psychological acuity and elegant style, The Life of Kingsley Amis is exemplary: literary biography at its very best. |
From inside the book
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Page ix
... John's College , Oxford , Summer 1942 ( courtesy of the Philip Larkin Estate , Society of Authors ) ; 11 KA and fellow undergraduates , St John's College , Oxford , Summer 1942 ( courtesy of the Philip Larkin Estate , Society of Authors ) ...
... John's College , Oxford , Summer 1942 ( courtesy of the Philip Larkin Estate , Society of Authors ) ; 11 KA and fellow undergraduates , St John's College , Oxford , Summer 1942 ( courtesy of the Philip Larkin Estate , Society of Authors ) ...
Page x
... John Wain , 1958 ( Mark Gerson / National Portrait Gallery , London ) ; 25 KA's students at Swansea , Geoffrey Nicholson , David Rees and Clive Gammon ( published in Dawn , 1952 , the official publication of the Students ' Union Council ...
... John Wain , 1958 ( Mark Gerson / National Portrait Gallery , London ) ; 25 KA's students at Swansea , Geoffrey Nicholson , David Rees and Clive Gammon ( published in Dawn , 1952 , the official publication of the Students ' Union Council ...
Page 28
... John Amis's mother , and the feeling was mutual . ' She had committed the unforgivable sin of pipping mother to the post in the maternal stakes , ' cousin John explains , ' Kingsley being born just a few weeks before I was.'89 Within John ...
... John Amis's mother , and the feeling was mutual . ' She had committed the unforgivable sin of pipping mother to the post in the maternal stakes , ' cousin John explains , ' Kingsley being born just a few weeks before I was.'89 Within John ...
Page 29
... John Amis recalls a family party in 1927 , probably at Barchester , when cousin Robert and Aunt Gladys were visiting from America . The three over - excited five - year - old cousins , Kingsley , Robert and John , were seated on a sofa ...
... John Amis recalls a family party in 1927 , probably at Barchester , when cousin Robert and Aunt Gladys were visiting from America . The three over - excited five - year - old cousins , Kingsley , Robert and John , were seated on a sofa ...
Page 49
... John remembers being floored by Amis's sophistication as a fourteen - year - old . John , who lived in West Norwood , made the occasional impromptu weekend or holiday visit to cousin Kingsley in Norbury , a trek of some three or four ...
... John remembers being floored by Amis's sophistication as a fourteen - year - old . John , who lived in West Norwood , made the occasional impromptu weekend or holiday visit to cousin Kingsley in Norbury , a trek of some three or four ...
Contents
1 | |
35 | |
52 | |
71 | |
92 | |
The War | 128 |
Postwar Oxford | 161 |
Oxford and Eynsham | 204 |
Patrick and Dai | 426 |
Cambridge | 449 |
Waking Beauty | 471 |
Breakup | 500 |
Divisions | 521 |
Lefties Toffs and Bigots | 559 |
Lemmons | 600 |
Dissolution | 642 |
Swansea | 234 |
Making Lucky Jim | 257 |
Fame and Friendship | 279 |
Uncertain Feelings | 300 |
Fun | 317 |
Abroad | 330 |
Widening Horizons | 352 |
Princeton | 383 |
Nadir | 684 |
Return | 731 |
Ending Up | 766 |
Afterlife | 811 |
Notes | 827 |
Bibliography | 943 |
Index | 961 |
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Common terms and phrases
Amis and Jane Amis told Amis wrote Amis's Amises Anthony Powell Anti-Death League Archer asked Biography Blackmur Blake Morrison Bodleian boys called Colin College Conquest December Dixon drink Elizabeth Jane Howard Ellingham English Eric Jacobs Essays Faber father friends funny Fussell Gollancz Hilly Hilly's Huntington Ibid interview Jake's Thing Jane's January jazz John July June Keeley Kingsley Amis later lecturer Lemmons letter to Larkin literary lived London look Lucky Jim lunch March Martin Amis Memoirs never novel novelist November October Old Devils Oxford party Penguin Peterhouse Philip Larkin poems poet poetry political Princeton published Quoted recalls remembers Robert Conquest Russian Hide-and-Seek Sally Salwak September Slipstream sort stay story suggested Sunday Swansea Take a Girl talk tell things thought tion took Uncertain Feeling University Wain week wife women writing wrote to Larkin